Scripture Text: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new". 2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)

I can remember a precious lady who had claimed to be a Baptist all of her life - take me to task as I gave a message using this particular verse. She maintained that nothing "exceptional" or "new" took place in her life when she got saved because she was a TRUE BAPTIST!

I tried not to chuckle but she was in her 70's and she was just such a sweetheart that I couldn't help it. She said that's the problem with you Pentecostals, you get so emotional about everything. You need to know that it is NEVER ABOUT EMOTION but it is always FACTS FIRST, FAITH SECOND and FEELINGS last.

I was a brand new Pastor in the Assemblies of God fellowship at the time (where she was a member by the way), and I hadn't done anything that I know to substantiate her claim. I was upbeat and joyous and liked to have testimony services allowing people to tell what Jesus had done for them that week; and there was that sign I put up in the church right over the top of the Pulpit that said, "COME ALIVE IN CHRIST"... but other than that - I just don't know what she was referring to.

Now, I've you given you a lot of "bits and pieces" of the first two or three months of my time as a pastor there, and as you can imagine there was a whole lot more to it that I don't have time to divulge here. The bottom line however, was the statement that she made more than once, that having faith in Christ "never involved any emotion for her". She just believed - and kept believing for over 50 years.

She was a stalwart Christian and a pillar of the community. As I said - she was a sweetheart. But she just felt there was something more to that verse in
2 Corinthians that she was missing because everyone else got something out of it that she just didn't see. She didn't feel NEW - she was just plain old Velma. The only "old things that had passed away" for her were some of her best friends and her husband: some15 years before. She would say, "I am, what I was! Nothing  changed!"

One day I happened to use this verse in one of my messages as a support verse for one of my points, and I happened to see Sweet Ol' Velma flinch as she reached down to get her purse so she could fidget and get her mind off what I was saying, when all of a sudden it hit me... read the next verse.

Well, if you're a Preacher or a Sunday School teacher and you get that kind of prodding you generally go with it, or not - according to your faith. Not sure Velma would have since it was a feeling from deep with in: an instruction from my spirit. But I went ahead and said... "Now watch this friends. Many of us have missed this and missed out on what God has for us in our lives... something new; something ALIVE; something we can see and touch". Then I read the verse.

"And all things are of God...". 2 Corinthians 5:18 (KJV)

Extremely puzzled, yet intrigued by what I had just said, Velma closed her purse and stared right at me as if to say, AND??? AND???

I continued... "When reading the Bible, whenever we come to such a conjunction at the beginning of a verse such as we have here in the 18th verse... we know instinctively that it is tied to the verse before it. I believe in this case, this is the key to verse 17 of 2 Corinthians Chapter 5. Let me read them together.

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. AND... AND... I said again, "all things are not just become new (ref verse 17) "ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD!"

I was then quickened in my mind to go to the book of Matthew, Chapter 7 verse 9 and I said, "Now listen to this..."

"...what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (ref., vs 9-11)

Then my heart began to pound as The Lord directed me to Galatians 5:22,23 where I asked the question,

"And what are those 'ALL THINGS THAT ARE OF GOD'?" Look at it with me and let's read them aloud together out of Galatians 5:22 and 23.

I begin to read slowly to make sure little Velma had time to get her Bible out - but she didn't need her Bible she knew what they said and as she recited the words a smile came across her face...

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law".

Talk about a change - a dramatic change coming over someone's face as she realized what she had been missing all of those years as she explained to me later...

"FRUIT was the production of the VINE!" Velma's words not mine... ( I liked that so she got my attention) and she realized from that moment on that "THE ALL THINGS BECOME NEW" meant that her life must produce fruit or there will always be some law or some rule or some legalistic premise that will squelch the life of it - meaning the "Life" of her conversion to Christ. She went on, "But to those that had experienced the 'ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD', Pastor- the 'fruit of the Spirit' which is '...love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law' there is a whole NEW outlook on life and your Life is changed forever".

Was there any doubt that Velma was saved and ready to go to heaven should Jesus have called her Name. NO! None as far as I could tell. But her life from that day on - dramatically changed to one filled with JOY, for she didn't just know the facts, and she didn't just hold to the faith... she had experienced the JOY of "A NEW MEASURE OF FAITH" - an EXTENSION OF THE FAITH" - the "ALL THINGS OF GOD" which included something that God Himself could not hide or reject: LOVE. Isn't that awesome?

Friend, if you're not experiencing the PASSION of God in your life today through the flow of God's Spirit in your life - receive the "ALL THINGS OF GOD" which out of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: also brings forth another fruit of the Spirit, which is the ministry of reconciliation. (ref., 2 Corinthians 5:18) Better to not leave home without it.

Let's pray,

Father, how often I have missed out on the opportunity of sharing your love and your hope and especially the ministry of reconciliation because I was too caught up in the facts, too caught up in the emotions, and forgetting all about the "ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD" part of the Christian Walk. Help me Lord, to never lose that "connection with my heart"; but even more than that, help me to never lose  that connection with your heart - which is the fruit of the Spirit that is in me. In Jesus' Name, I pray, Amen.